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My latest read is Alex Woodward's For the Sender. It's a tender story about a musician, Alex Woodward who one day gets a surprise letter in the mail just as he's contemplating his professional music career and existence. That first letter is from a grateful fan, Emily, who lost her husband a few years back in the autumn. Emily writes to Alex, "So, every year around this time, when memories fill me, I write him a letter. I thought I'd share it with you, not so you'd write a song for he and I, but because I think your songs are gifts." Alex is deeply moved by the letter and decides to write a song as a way to give back. What follows is a series of letters and songs, not just from Emily but from other fans who also send their personal accounts of loss and renewal. Alex learns that he receives more from giving back to others than wallowing in his own thoughts and insecurities.

I enjoyed reading each of the letters that touched Alex's life, and getting a perspective of what it's like to be a musician and song writer. The songs are written and recorded in Alex's living room, often after a morning surf. Another sweet spot of the book was that Alex was not afraid to show his emotions over losing his dog, Kona. It was a refreshing change to the stereotypical range of emotions males are portrayed as having.

This little book is accompanied by a CD with the songs from the book.

For the Sender was sent to me by Hay House for my honest review.

For the Sender is a tiny book with CD. A songwriter takes letters sent to him and experiences in his life to write his songs. In doing so, it bring meaning and healing to himself and others for whom he writes.

I was immediately drawn to his purpose in life, whether he wrote it that way or not, in the first chapter.

“..just the thought of someday making a moment in someone’s life better with one of my songs made me feel more alive than anything at my job ever could.”

The author goes into great detail the stories that inspired each song. I appreciate the chapter called The Box which begins with this quote.

”All this time, we had been one and the same.” – Way of the Peaceful Warrior

What he realizes is that every story that belongs to someone else also belongs to him. It will be in a fractured form or appear in a different face, but we all have experience that mirror the emotion. He encapulate this so well here:

“I can see how the struggles and triumphs we talk about over dinner, or on the playground, or to the mirror, are unique because they come from different voices, but are all part of the same conversation. The stories belong to all of us.”

I could not think of a better message from a songwriter and musician. Feeling the interconnectedness of all beings is the foundation for true compassion and empathy. When that comes through in our chose art and inspired work, we become more than the sum of ourselves.

For the Sender was sent to me by www.hayhouse.com for my honest review.

"Autumn is painting change everywhere and I am turning over a season of my own, although the leaves are doing a better job of letting go than I am. Leaves and dreams alike are either dying on the limb or already gone. And so is she."?

-from For the Sender by Alex Woodard

Alex Woodard's For the Sender is an inspiring book for anyone who is struggling to find meaning in their experiences. It also makes a great gift for anyone who is having difficulty coming to terms with loss, though this book is a celebration of life and not about loss. It is about the connections that we make throughout our journey in this world. It holds the message that life has a way of unfolding beautifully even when there are no immediate answers. When we are truly able to let go of the way we think things should be and accept what is, we come to find that all those seemingly insignificant happenings were all connected.

What begins as four letters and twelve songs turns into a journey of healing and understanding. With each song intended for the letter-writer, Alex finds pieces of himself wrapped inside. Whether it's an act of kindness, a prayer for peace, a letter of forgiveness or a song that touches us deeply, as For the Sender clearly reveals, these gifts bless the one who gives as well as the one who receives.

This book comes with a CD and the music is breath-taking and soul-awakening. There is great truth in Alex Woodard's realization that writing, singing and praying are all the same. Each of these activities are ways to awaken the deeper life within us. I invite you to read For the Sender and see that life works beautifully. Even if you already know this to be true, Alex Woodard's book serves as a powerful reminder.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

For the Sender by Alex Woodard was the first book I've read in a long time that allowed time to stand still and push me into the story itself.

The beautiful and heartfelt narrative drove this story along the road that Alex was on physically and spiritually. Letters, lyrics, and lessons spiraled around true accounts of love lost, world devastation, and death of loved ones, allowing emotional walls to tumble down with ultimate surrender.

Growing up in an atheist family, Alex didn't fall into the same belief system, but instead was able to find “God, Spirit, Buddha”, throughout reading, listening, and concluding that God is love. “A friend tells me that often the best thing for a forest is a fire, because the ashes enrich the soil and promote the stronger renewal and growth…..the forest needs the fire. It’s the earth’s way of feeding herself and in time life emerges from the ashes.” Page 89 Damage that is done is all in good cause for a new life to emerge and begin again.

After finishing this book I felt the need to connect with Alex Woodard because of his selflessness, generosity, and kindhearted soul that came through the words he wrote. I found the website www.forthesender.com and came across the opportunity to send in your own letters that could possibly be made into more songs.

Perhaps just as a new healing and beginning began for Alex, writing letters can help me as well. After all, it’s FOR THE SENDER.

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the book from Hay House for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

This book is about a dog named Kona that died. It’s about a singer-songwriter’s jaded, faded dreams. It’s about heartbreak and loss and grief. It’s about the power of a letter. It’s all this and so much more. It’s a slim book that’s heavy with emotion. But to me, the words that contain its core message are: Life is better when I’m not thinking about me.

In a bid to promote his album, Alex Woodard offers to write a song for anybody who pre-orders his self-titled release. Just send him a letter about your story and he’ll write and record a song about it sitting at his kitchen table. Nothing much comes of it. The record deal falls apart. When Alex’s beloved black Labrador dies with her head in his lap, the last piece of light goes out of his life.

Shortly after Kona’s passing, Alex receives a letter from a woman named Emily. It is one among many letters she writes every autumn to her soulmate Enno who died a few years ago. Ironically, autumn was the season of their meeting and his passing. As Alex “crawls inside Emily’s letter, there is an instant kinship of loss and love and gratitude.” For The Sender is born of this expression.

Soon, one letter turns into four. One song turns into twelve. And all of a sudden, Alex and his musician buddies are writing songs about letters. In the “wreckage of tragedy”–pain, loss, grief, abandonment–they find truths and stories that have universal meaning. In his own words, “All these songs I’ve had a hand in, about someone else’s story and rarely sung in my voice, and I’m happier than ever. It’s my same dream of making a moment in someone else’s life better with a song, but it looks different now.”

What inspires me the most about this beautiful, poetic memoir is the sense of connection which is at the core of all human experience. At the end of the day, there is only one story. And it belongs to all of us. Our individual stories are like myriad colored threads, but together we weave one brilliant tapestry. Every thread has a part to play. No thread is more or less important. It is only when we pull apart that we tear the tapestry and end up with our lives frayed.

We’re connected the moment we realize that all pain is the same. Yours and mine. Once that truth touches your soul, you will never look at life the same way again.

For Alex, the journey began with Kona breathing her last, and him breathing in life through Emily’s offering of a poignant letter.

This is a book that celebrates life and love and the joys of connection. It’s a book that will make you laugh and cry and cheer and embrace the truth of who you are. It’s worth reading and rereading and rereading…

Released September 18, 2012, For the Sender by Alex Woodard is a story of lyrics, music and getting inspiration from the smallest places. It is part memoir, part poetry and part letters but full of love and creativity.

Alex Woodard was struggling as a musician but he wasn't ready to give up on his dream. Finally, he landed a record deal and offered a promotion where he would write a song just for you, as long as you sent him a letter. The promotion fell through, along with his record deal and Alex lost the hope he once had, and then he got a letter from Emily.

She didn't want Alex to write a song for her, she just wanted to share a letter that she wrote to someone she lost. Emily made the habit of writing a letter to the love of her life, whom she lost, on the anniversary of his death. She decided to share this letter with Alex.

With the help of many of his musician friends such as Jon Foreman from Switchfoot, the Watkin's siblings from Nickel Creek, Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory, and many others, they took four different letters and turned them into twelve different songs.

I really enjoyed this collection of memories and poetic words, but more than anything, I loved seeing the bigger story unfold about how we all seem to be connected in a bigger story. Our sadness can be felt other's sadness, our joy gives others joy and more than anything, we can connect the same whether we are side by side or worlds apart. We can connect through words, music, lyrics and conversation.

Not only did I love reading about the bigger picture of connection and community but I enjoyed Alex's journey of self-discovery through a creative outlet. It's a great story and a great cause, plus, some really amazing music has come out of this project.

If you love singer/songwriter music... just go buy the book for the cd. I. LOVE. THE. MUSIC. It's phenomenal. I love the line, "Every year, I write you this letter but like a prayer, it's more for the sender." I get goosebumps every time.

Recently, I placed an order with Hay House and was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package to find it contained an additional book which the publishing house had gifted me, accompanied by a lovely letter. Remember getting letters in the mail? Now that we are in the thick of the digital age, receiving an actual letter in the mail is quite a treat.

The book is For the Sender and for some reason I felt compelled to start reading it before reading the books I had actually ordered and paid for that arrived in the package. And I’m so glad I did.

Alex Woodward has a writing voice that soothes your soul and takes you on a journey of discovery. His vocal voice is equally as talented, as I discovered from the free CD that accompanies the book. Through letters Alex received as a testament to the transforming music he makes as a singer/songwriter, he decides to look beyond his own story and create songs for the people from whom he receives letters of gratitude. The songs are heart-wrenching and beautiful, hopeful and healing all at the same time. He enlists the help of his talented friends to create these heartfelt pieces of music for those who composed these letters and shared their own stories of losing loved ones or losing themselves along the way.

As Alex focuses on helping them, he realizes he has found himself.

This book has by far been my favorite piece of reading this year. Thank you Alex, and everyone that has gifted you with letters to create this masterpiece.

For the Sender. Don’t let the size of this book fool you. Alex Woodard’s memoir reads like a melodic lullaby, at times impossible to put down. A singer songwriter who writes like a poet, Woodard’s journey begins with a pull toward a dream that is shared in such a manner that you might want to be in that truck with him as he rolls out of town and away from the daily grind.

I know when Kona’s introduced early on there can only be one ending to this, and for me it is difficult to continue down the path to another sad outcome (I refused to read about Marley for the same reason). Yet I still continued this book. I was drawn in with every imaginable stroke of the pen or tap of the keyboard because Alex Woodard’s words are like a cool stream on a hot day. His journey is uniquely shared, through letters that become songs, and over the life span of his beloved dog, Kona.

Mostly I kept reading because I couldn’t put it down. Alex Woodard has ‘mad skills!’ The man can write. And experiencing his transformation alongside him, well it’s well worth the ride. The memoir is only 123 pages long, and it’s amazing.

For a dog lover who’s also a songwriter, this book is pure heaven. But for anyone who is searching for a better space to be living within, Alex Woodard’s words might just strike a cord for you, too.

For the Sender is a five star read, and the CD of music is an added bonus. For the Sender is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Hay House.

I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

In this wonderfully tender book, Alex Woodard describes his journey of self-awareness. Having previously been focused on writing and performing songs about his own pain, he starts writing songs about the letters he receives from others. He begins writing about other people's pain and triumphs. This launches him on the road to musical success and the discovery that when he writes about another person's pain, he is writing about his own. We are all tied together in our humanity. He had gotten out of himself and there he had found himself.

His one true friend is Kona. Kona is a black Labrador who is with him for fourteen years. Much of the book is about Kona and Alex's relationship and it is touching. The people mentioned in the book seem like background.

For the Sender: Four Letters. Twelve Songs. One Story is a gentle book that is to be savored. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed every page. It's touching, tender, true and a book I will remember.
Four letters, twelve songs, and one story is an apt description of this book. Based on the four letters he receives from others, Alex writes twelve wonderful songs. The CD is enclosed within the book, and it's wonderful! Each song aptly describes feelings that all of us have experienced to varying degrees. This book and its CD are a moving and transforming experience.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free through Hay House Publishing book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255vf: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

This delightful memoir with CD presents how Grammy-winning songwriters, singers, and engineers, with millions of records sold, took touching letters and transformed them into heartfelt songs.

Misted with insightful quotes and thought-provoking statements, this book assists you to reflect on your own life and cherish those sweet moments with loved ones. The CD enclosed with this book shares the beautiful songs written from letters. The words to the songs are contained in the book.

This book with CD is an invigorating blend of encouragement, reminiscent, and motivation that will give you a jump in your step to dancing towards achieving your dreams. Also, this book would make a special gift.

Sometimes it is in the act of doing something to help someone else that we find personal growth. It is through the motions of selflessness that we more deeply connect with self. And it is through the act of giving that we are most likely, and often unexpectedly, the ones to ultimately receive. It is the growth through those acts that Alex Woodard’s book, For The Sender, illustrates so beautifully.

For The Sender – Four Letters. Twelve Songs. One Story. Is the journey of singer-songwriter Alex Woodard, who, after years of chasing his dreams, offers to write a song for anybody who pre-orders his self-titled release. However, the promotion came and went, the record deal fell apart, and it was a year before Alex got his first letter from Emily. She didn’t want Woodard to write a song for her, but instead wanted him to know that she felt his songs were pieces of himself that he gives to others, and she wanted to share her story as a gift in kind.

Being touched by Emily’s story, Woodard did write a song, and that song became two, three, and eventually Woodard had completed a dozen songs not only for Emily, but for the letters that followed, and the relationships that he built along the way. There were the stories of love, loss, growth and heroic acts of selflessness. Through those stories shared, and subsequent conversations, Woodard gave back to the sender, with his songs.

The senders in For The Sender get songs, but the readers of For The Sender get Woodard’s story, which is beautiful. As a writer, I love the way words can be woven to evoke a sense of time and place, and Woodard does that. Through the pages of the book, readers are taken on Woodard’s journey through love, loss, fear and uncertainty. He grapples with universal issues, and uncovers very personal truths. And through it all, he has his guitar, his hope, and his time with the music.

Woodard builds relationships through his journey with other musicians in his California neighborhood who he meets regularly for “family dinners”, and many of them contribute to the songs. While the relationships are built, they are not focused on as a primary in the book, instead, he fills the pages by demonstrating where’s he at and what his motivations are for each song. Not through conscious effort or any sort of posturing, just through his own life experiences, all of which are moments captured with grace and humility.

Woodard writes that the entire experience has been about other people’s stories and songs, but at the end while out surfing he realizes, “I let go of someday every time I take off on a wave and become more present in the moment. Life is better then, when I’m not thinking about me…All these songs I’ve had a hand in, about someone else’s story and rarely sung in my voice, and I’m happier than ever. It’s my same dream of making a moment in someone’s life better with a song, but it looks different now. I laugh as I realize that I call myself a songwriter, but I haven’t written a song about myself in months. And I take the next wave in, rush out of the water, up the stairs, and into the house, because my next thought overtakes me like the final sequence in a movie where all the scenes that didn’t made sense before come together in a heartbeat. Maybe I was somehow writing about myself. Maybe my story has been there the whole time.”

Reaching out and helping others isn’t about you, but the growth you experience and the change you feel as a result make it worth it, every time. So today, take some time to truly ask yourself how you can help someone along their journey, it will be good for both of you, I promise.

Singer and songwriter Alex Woodard finds himself at a crossroads in his life. The loss of his beloved Labrador, Kona, as well as confusion about his own personal direction and his unfulfilled career ambitions send him into a prolonged state of introspection. But this is far from a solitary journey. It is a creative and collaborative adventure, shared with friends and strangers, and guided by written letters that serendipitously appear in his life.

The first letter is from Emily, who writes in response to Alex’s request for letters to inspire songs for his upcoming album. She doesn’t want a song, she just wants to thank him for his music, and tell him how it has helped her cope with the death of her great love. Alex decides he does want to write a song for her, and he shares it with other musicians who meet at regular “family dinners” in the neighborhood. Inspired, they begin to help him create and share his gift for Emily.

This is only the beginning. More letters appear, more songs are inspired, and Alex connects with more musicians and songwriters. They help him unravel and express the emotional connections he has with the stories of the letter writers. He notices that their questions, struggles, and revelations parallel his own. In the end there are 12 songs, many new friends, and a calming peace and acceptance for Alex.

My thoughts about For the Sender:
I can’t say that I have ever had a reading experience quite like the one I had with For the Sender. This book was a quiet and peaceful read. Its profound philosophies just melted into me, I never had to stop and think hard, or struggle to understand them. Through descriptive prose, honestly expressed emotions, and poetic lyrics it felt more like the book was being sung to me, like a gentle lullaby.

There are so many spiritual books about self-discovery that encourage you to focus on yourself first and foremost, without discussing the importance of reaching out to others. Alex’s truths are revealed through his active connection with the letter writers and his fellow musicians, his willingness to share his talents with them unconditionally, and receive their love and talents in return.

His community supports him, challenges him, and enlightens him in a way he never would have experienced going solo. His writing delicately highlights the magic of these connections - the planets aligning /right place at the right time miracles that never fail to leave me awestruck. As I read about Alex’s chance meeting with Jack Tempchin, writer of the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and how Jack quickly agreed to collaborate on a song with Alex, I get goosebumps.

We have all had the thrill of experiencing the perfect-ness of a creative collaboration at least once in our lives. But I have rarely seen it written about the way that Alex Woodard presents it in For the Sender. He takes us step by step through the practical motions of each song project, while sharing the deep life lessons revealed in the process. After sharing this journey with him, we are able to listen to several of the final song recordings on a CD that accompanies the book, and feel the same sense of joy and completeness that the music brought to others.

For the Sender is a book about the amazing healing and transformational power of togetherness. It gifts us with deep lessons about our natural state of being - we are always at our best when connected with others. In its beauty and simplicity, it presents a path for growth and understanding that is familiar and intuitive – something we once knew, but somehow forgot.

My favorite quotes from For the Sender:

“Under my breath I tell myself to stay out of the way, to trust the process. Lately I’m finding that sometimes what I want isn’t really what I need and the right things seem to happen if I’m patient.”

“All these songs I’ve had a hand in, about someone else’s story and rarely sung in my voice, and I’m happier than ever. It’s my same dream of making a moment in someone’s life better with a song, but it looks different now. I laugh as I realize I call myself a songwriter, but I haven’t written a song about myself in months.”

I am no longer tethered to my voice singing something I wrote, and the song is better for it.

~ Alex Woodard in For the Sender

What if we all lived from a place of shared experience? How much better would the world be if each one of us recognized our own stories in the those of others? What if, rather than pass judgment on ourselves and those around us, we embraced one another with the knowledge that though our paths may diverge, our destination remains universal? In his new book, For the Sender, Alex Woodard gives readers an intimate look at how he was able to transform his life through the lives of others. Poignant, sensitive and beautifully written, For the Sender reminds us that we are all connected- to one another and the world around us- through our shared human experience.

For the Sender is a story of transformation. It is the story of how one man was brought out of himself and into the world by the power of the love contained within 12 letters he received from others detailing their own struggles with pain, loss, loneliness, tragedy and yes, joy. Upon receiving each letter, Woodard sets out to write a song, determined to give voice and meaning to the touching stories described there-in. Through collaboration with others, he is able to co-create 12 beautiful songs whose lyrics remind us that not a single one of us is ever truly alone.

In the beginning of the book Woodard describes his tendency to hide from the world under his “make-believe coat of dreams.” An imaginary coat he wears in order to protect himself from the outside world. However, by the end he has stepped out into the world of dreams realized. He discovers by letting others into his life- exposing the fear and celebrating the triumphs- that he has finally begun living.

For the Sender is a story of loss, heartache and the redemptive power of the love that connects us all. At certain times the words are wrought with emotion and raw in their sensitivity. At others they are beautiful and touching, laced with the imagery and reflection reserved only for those who have lived through desperate times and emerged on the other side to share their stories. Regardless of their tone, the intention of Woodard’s words- those in the letters written to him, those in the lyrics of his songs, and those contained within the pages of his book- remains the same. They remind us that we are all connected, that the love that is there for one of us is there for all. We simply have to open our hearts and dance to the beat of our Universal drum, while letting our own unique voices be heard.

For the Sender will be available September 18, 2012.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book free of charge from Hay House Publishers for review purposes. The opinions contained here-in reflect my honest judgment of this product.

Thankfully, some people still write letters. And others turn them into music for your soul.

A good book resonates with your heart. Good music resonates with your soul. So what happens when a talented songwriter pens a memoir? You’re taken one step closer to understanding life.

That may sound a little over the top, but the pure emotion that flows from Alex Woodard’s For the Sender can hardly be contained within its small size. The short book and accompanying CD tap into rich veins of creativity, sorrow, pride, despair, and most of all, love. Woodard’s songwriting background brings a richness to his writing that allows us the honor of feeling our way through the story of his life, reveling in his accomplishments and crying with his tragedies.

In fact, it only took me 14 pages into the book before I finally had to give in and get a box of Kleenex. Woodard’s life story and the letters of inspiration he used to write the book are both emotionally wrenching and life giving at the same time. The song lyrics he includes aren’t just poetic, they’re cathartic, helping move the reader through the sometimes-painful memories each song unearths.

Since the universe is always on our side, it’s easy for me to see why this particular book made its way to me at this time in my life. Within the first few pages, I was hooked into Woodard’s storyline, feeling my own life mirrored in his discontent of dreaming for a better life for himself. While I’m not an aspiring songwriter or musician, I think he adequately captures the denseness of living a life that isn’t quite fulfilling.

“These cold realities of the music business slowly begin to creep under my skin and some nights, as I lay alone in bed, I weave a make-believe coat of dreams as protection to keep me warm: dreams of ‘making it,’ dreams of having somebody to grow old with, dreams of little feet on hardwood floors. That imaginary coat of protection keeps the cold out, but it also keeps most of myself hidden from anybody else,” he writes.

That metaphor creeps in and out of the storyline as Woodard takes us back a few years so we can understand his own state of mind as he learns to let go of the life he thought he should be living and accept the life he has.

The storyline
For the Sender is more than Woodard’s life story. It’s a story of how he came to accept and understand his life by reframing the stories of others through songwriting. Those stories come in the form of four letters he received over a period of several years and the 12 songs that were written from each letter’s inspiration. In all, the letters and songs connect us to Woodard’s life and our own stories, which are as natural as the world can be.

The four letters Woodard received became inspiration for Woodard and some of his musician friends, pushing their creativity to capture the feelings and emotions emanating from the letters’ authors. The letters came from four women, sharing their intensely personal stories:

• Emily, who met her soulmate only to have him pass away. She began writing letters to her lost love and she included one in her letter to Woodard. The grief, despair, hope and acceptance in that letter made a profound impact on the songwriter.
• Woodard and some friends visited a homeless shelter for teens to inspire the kids and in the process became inspired by the center’s director, Kim. The story of her troubled youth and understanding of her own unique gifts is fodder for two songs.
• Alison is a medic who was one of the first responders after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Her selfless devotion to the people of Haiti and her questioning of the will of God caused Woodard to reflect on his own faith.
• Katelyn was struggling to handle the demands of a newborn when her police officer husband was killed in the line of duty. Her resilience to move on touched Woodward and his friends as they wrote about the circle of life.

Woven throughout the storylines of each letter is Woodard’s reflection on his own life. We see his anguish over the loss of his best friend—a black Labrador named Kona—who died in his lap. His companion was a benchmark for Woodard and his dreams and her death helped clarify where his life was headed. Until he received the first letter from Emily, he had concentrated solely on writing about himself, using songwriting as a form of self-expression and emotional release.

The letters helped Woodard see life through a different filter: that of other people. He realized he could express the raw emotions of others through his songwriting and in the process, solidified his own thoughts and feelings on life and spirituality.

Woodard’s reflection on the letters and his own struggles with life help him understand the shared experiences of everyone on Earth. He understands that the letters are written more for the sender’s benefit than for the receiver. Yet the ideas, emotions, hopes and dreams of the letters are so universal that they can be appreciated by anyone.

Reading For the Sender, I felt privileged to peek into the creative process of Woodard and his friends. Like alchemists, the songwriters sifted through the words of each letter and distilled the bare essence of the sender’s souls. What remains is pure, clear insight into the human condition and a soothing tonic for understanding the world in a new way.

From a self-development perspective, I enjoyed watching Woodard’s growth through the songwriting process and ultimately his own changing consciousness. His understanding of conscious creation comes through as he breaks down his own self-defeating thought processes and begins to understand his role in creating his life.

“Under my breath I tell myself to stay out of the way and trust the process. Lately I’m finding that sometimes what I want isn’t really what I need and the right things seem to happen if I’m patient,” he writes as he begins to see the letters and subsequent songs take on a life of their own.

Ultimately, he realizes that life is best experienced when he drops expectations, when he stops trying to control every detail of his life. That’s a hard concept to process, let alone experience, but he gets there one day while surfing in the Pacific.

“These moments are what my dreams are made of now, more so than all the things I thought I wanted someday. Surfing isn’t about someday. It’s about now. I let go of someday every time I take off on a wave and become more present in the moment. Life is better then, when I’m not thinking about me.”

Who should read this book?
You don’t need to be interested in music or in self-development to find enjoyment in For the Sender. However, anyone with an interest in songwriting, creativity, spirituality or new age concepts will be pleasantly surprised by the storyline of this memoir and especially in the lingering buzz it leaves on the reader.

For the Sender does tug on the heartstrings in a most blatant manner. I attribute this to Woodard’s poetic writing style that eliminates extraneous details in order to focus on the things that matter most to him and the women who penned the letters that inspired his songs. It’s a quick and easy read but is one that is sure to stir your own deep emotions and leave you feeling hopeful for the future.

Details:
For the Sender is scheduled for hardcover release on September 18, 2012. A CD of the songs inspired by the letters is included and proceeds generated by the songs from each letter will be donated to a cause of the sender’s choice.

You can watch videos of the songs created from the letters, as well as read the letters themselves, at the book’s website at: http://www.forthesender.com/